Would Tyrell Biggs have been more successful if he had more power in his punches?

I believe the guys he fought realized he wasn't as good as his gold medal would indicate.
His opponents came into fights against him confident they can win, sometimes that's
all that needed.

 

Yeah and a fighter gets more confident the more times his blows land. Biggs was a name guy who wound up in exchanges with any opponent where as the better ones are supposed to control the distance and dominate a situation.

 

If Biggs hadn't thrown away his game plan in round two, he might have beat Iron Mike. As big a waste as Riddick Bowe became in the latter part of his career, Biggs had him beat in that he had all the tools to originally become a champion and apparently let fear make them null and void.

To me that Biggs/Tyson fight was pretty shameful on Biggs' part. Had he continued to fight Mike the way he did in the first round, he had a very good chance of at least a split decision victory imo. He got scared and threw it all away.

 

Thats the case.

Check out round 1 of the Tyson fight. For about two minutes, he did very well, but for some reason, shifted down the gear for the last minute and of course got hit.

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He didn´t move like Ali, but for beeing 6'5" he was fine, with that long jab too.

 

Keep in mind that bout was scheduled for 15 rounds and Biggs was cut.

 

Iron Mike was incredible back then, but I think you'll agree Tyrell looked pretty damn good moving like he did through most of the first round. It's like Mike said, everyone has a plan til they get hit...I was expecting better from Tyrell.

 

His drug problem was $1500 a day according to the intro to the tyson fight.

I think tyson would have walked through most of Biggs punches before slowing down from body shots. It was only a matter of time for that version of Tyson.

Shame because for the first 2 minutes he looked really good.

 

He had limited physicality. Ali was physically very strong and Biggs wasn’t. It was more that than power, I think.

 

I think that figure must be an exaggaration.

Noel Gallagher laughs about how he was once credited with a £4,000 a day coke habit which was widely reported as fact in the media. He said yes, when asked, but his tongue was firmly in cheek. He later said he didn't even think it was worth denying. Coke was about £50 a gram, £4000 a day. Do the maths. It's just not possible.

Same with Biggs. You've got to assume if you're spending that much you'll get economies of scale. How much coke does $1500 a day buy you in 1987? 15g at $100 a gram, maybe? There's no way he could look that good physically if he was taking that much a day. The point remains he took an unhealthy amount, no doubt, but it needs a bit of context.

 

Biggs whole pro career seemed half hearted /not really committed..and consequently it was a terrible waste.

He could do everything to a certain level but not enough of it...eg he could move....but not for more than a couple of rounds....he could punch but not quite enough...he had a chin but than it could go...he could exchange with anyone without ever dominating...

Drink and drugs were the cause...and i really would have liked to see Eddie Futch train him...but again..classic pro Biggs catch 22...Futch wasnt going to touch him with a barge pole as Tyrell wasnt dedicated and was running wild....despite all that at the start of his career he had good wins over James Tillis,Renaldo Snipes and David Bey....if he had got clean and taken another 2 years before meeting Tyson...he wouldve done better as a pro ..but realistically he was never beating even Tokyo Tyson.

Still whats done is done...Biggs was a World Anateur champion andv Olympic Gold medalist he travelled the world those are incredible achievements and he achieved a hell of a lot..more than that he beat the drugs and has been a tremendous role model/trainer and all round good guy the last 30years in post retirement....no one has a bad word to say about him as a man.

He could fight inside,he had

 

I don’t actually think he was using in the year or two before Tyson. Thomas and Tucker were also clean as far as I know.

Can anyone actually confirm that Biggs was a drug addict near his peak? I think it’s more of an overcoming adversity story used by the media although I know he went to rehab maybe once early in his career or post Olympics.

 

That's why I put the source in there

 

Yes. Not having a go at you, mate. Sorry if it came across that way. Just pointing out how lazy the media can be - and naive - to quote that as if it's a fact when anyone who roughly knows the price of drugs and can do basic maths realises that it's highly unlikely.

 

Good luck selling that one to any balanced boxing fan.

 

Hi John, all respect as you're a very respectable member, but I couldn't care less who buys what I say. FTW.